[okfn-za] Ideas for an initial group project - input wanted!

Mon Feb 11 12:54:56 UTC 2013

Hi All

1) pulling stats together for minors in prison: what was bail, how

> > long has he/she been in there, how many times has court been postponed
> > due to "lost" docket or absent key person
>
> Any idea where we could find the data? Is it all paper or is it
> electronic? Does the government make it available. Could we focus on a
> specific locality to start with?
>

I've poked around quickly online but the only database on verdicts that I
have found is for High Courts and the Supreme Court - but nothing obviously
interesting. We would need someone with more intimate knowledge of where
this data could be found.

>
> > 3) degrees of separation mind-mappish type thingy for 500 most
> > influential South Africans.
> > Type in two names, and thingy finds the shortest routes between the
> > two people (boards of directors, relatives, education, political
> > events, tenders).
> > Not "quite simple" as you requested but would be fascinating.
>
> So we need the SA companies register including directors. theyrule for
> South Africa [1]. Is the Companies Register available in machine
> readable format

The companies register is pathetic. It only provides the name and
registration number of the company. There is a cost to finding out who the
directors are. This is a prime target for a FOI application - although it's
unlikely to be successful without costly litigation.

>
> > 6) national map of police station location juxtap with population
> > I have in mind the Hout Bay police station for 20,000 people vs the
> > eastern Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve police station for 20 people, 1/4
> > of whom work in the station.
>
> Again, very nice. Where
>

This is easy enough

police stations can be found on the SAPS site -
http://www.saps.gov.za/statistics/reports/crimestats/2012/provinces/w_cape/western_cape.htm

they aren't geocoded but you could probably find their coordinates in the
OpenStreetMaps POI database.

The police aren't keen on providing shape files demarcating police
jurisdictions (I've tried) so we would have to use a heuristic to figure
out which areas are policed by which stations.

Finally, population data is available from StatsSA. As yet, they haven't
released sub-place level information (e.g. Hout Bay). Only municipal level
data is currently available. They're promising sub-place level information
in March but I'm not holding my breath given the census fiasco. We can use
the 2001 census as a proxy until the 2011 data becomes available.

Adi

>
>
> > Kind regards,
> > Louisa
>
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-- 
Adi Eyal
Data Specialist
phone: +27 78 014 2469
skype: adieyalcas
linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
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